Preservation Dallas’ Fall Architectural Tour honored Frank Welch, an architect who passed away earlier in the year. The day started at The Lamplighter School in North Dallas with a tour and a symposium – a tour because Welch had contributed to the design of the school and a symposium to tell us what we’d be seeing. After I got over the shock of discovering a former First Lady sitting two rows in front of me at the symposium, my bestie and I made our way to the car.

Regional Modernism

Confession here, and it won’t be a surprise to my usual followers, I’m not all that big on modern anything and Mr. Welch was a master of “Regional Modernism” – think Austin hunting lodge without dead heads. Give me a Gothic cathedral or Renaissance palace any day of the week, but I’m in the process of growing my preferences. I have no desire to be one of those little old ladies with pursed lips, panning everything that’s happened in the world since my heydays. So, while I would have preferred a day devoted to more traditional styles, I was prepared to find things I liked among Mr. Welsh’s houses.

And I did. Mr. Welch created homes with simple elegant lines. Nothing fussy. Perhaps a little plain from the street for my personal taste, but not boring by any stretch of the imagination. The roofs were either flat or metal. Exteriors were stone or stucco. In most cases, the entry offered a surprise of some sort: a fanciful metal grill, a whimsical light fixture or even a unique water feature.

Inside form gracefully followed function. Every home featured a plethora of storage – some homes had bookcases in every room, while cabinets formed most of the walls in others. No clutter was allowed. The stars of the show were the staircases, fireplaces and great swaths of counter top.

Perhaps my favorite thing about any Frank Welch house was the integration between interior and exterior spaces. There was a constant harmonious conversation between the two. In almost every room, doors provided access to the out of doors, whether that was to a courtyard, a generous screened-in porch or a lakeside lawn.

The Other Side of the Coin

There were also things I didn’t like. I’m just not into blonde wood floors, white walls, plain doors and an absence of hardware. I prefer paneled doors in frames, crown molding, fireplace mantles and base boards. I prefer representational art. I like gorgeous hardware dripping off of everything. Most homes had joint offices and while I adore my husband, I don’t want to share office space with him. I guess the real magic of Frank Welch was he could put things together that I’m not particularly fond of in ways that made for a home I could enjoy.

Even with style differences keeping some of the houses off my love list, each had touches that I had to love. Almost every house had a luxurious gym. Skylights made even interior rooms bright. The roof of one large garage was a garden. While color was almost absent, texture played an important role.

At the end of the day, I loved it. Preservation Dallas will have another one in the Spring. You should go ahead and join so you won’t miss it. And speaking of things you don’t want to miss, on Wednesday we’ll be leaving Heliopolis and heading to Giza. Join us for the drive. Then next Monday we’ll get back to the Meal Kit Comparisons.

OK, so I don’t actually know Laura Bush and I wasn’t in her entourage as she enjoyed the Preservation Dallas (PD) Fall Architectural Tour, but I did spend my day touring the same houses she did. For much of that day we were actually in the same houses at the same time. A few times I could have just wrapped my arm around her and said, “Isn’t this fun?” To my bestie’s great delight, I didn’t, but honestly, I wanted to.

Preservation Dallas is My New Thing

I only recently joined PD, but I am so glad I did. Shortly after joining, I learned about their Fall Architectural Tour. Deb and I thought it would be a great way to celebrate her birthday, so I bought Patron Tickets unaware that I’d just signed us up for one of the best weekends ever.

The Patron Party was lovely. Held on the top floor of an architecturally-significant Turtle Creek home, we sipped wine and tasted canapes with an eclectic bunch of movers and shakers. We made some new friends and I even ran into someone I’d known from the glory days of the DMA’s PM League. (In case you didn’t know, I call them the glory days, because that’s how I met my husband.) We were primed for a great day of touring homes designed by the architect Frank Welch.

The Lamplighter School

The day began at The Lamplighter School. Dallas is full of amazing private schools, but since I’d never had kids, I haven’t spent much time thinking about them. An optional tour of the school was offered before general registration and even though I had doubts it would be of any great interest, Deb and I rarely miss a thing.

The elementary school is charming. The tour began in a light-filled library with three kid-sized fire-place nooks for curling up with good books. The body of the school is a big open classroom with groups of teeny tiny chairs. A hall lined with paint-daubed smocks leads to a large art classroom redolent with the smell of drying clay, crayons and tempra paint. OK, so this was a pretty cool school – but I hadn’t seen anything yet!

Their newest building is sort of a life lab. It’s got hydroponic tomatoes from the Dallas Arboretum, science labs and other classrooms. The central court is a cooking lab with kid-sized counters. Nearby is the wood-working lab. Yes, a wood-working lab for primary students. Now I was really impressed, but the Lamplighter had only begun to strut its stuff.

The large playground begs little ones to come outside and climb all over the colorful play equipment. Even us big ones had to admit 30 minutes swinging on the rope swing, digging in the sandbox and zipping down the slides would have been fun – but they were way too small for us.

The big surprise was a barn full of farm animals. When is the last time you visited an elementary school with with’s own chickens, goats, pig and cow. That’s what I thought!

The Symposium

After the tour we were delivered to the gym for a symposium about the featured architect, but first there was a continental breakfast buffet. Deb and I connected with some friends who were also enjoying this event and then found seats behind a large gentleman in a navy blue topcoat and an earplug. Yep, Deb and I were sitting right behind Mrs. Bush’s security detail, we just didn’t realize it yet.

I’ll just come out and say it. The symposium was (shall we say) a little dry. These were architects after all and they get paid for thinking on a higher plane than the rest of us. Of course, at the time, I didn’t realize the nice lady in the tan sweater, who’s neatly bobbed hair bounced with every nod of her head, was our 43rd First Lady. After I found out, I gave the speakers some grace. I might have had a hard time putting together coherent sentences with an audience like that.

Unaware of the distraction on the first row, I struggled to pay attention and grasp the information being presented like a scavenger hunt on a long and winding dirt road. I couldn’t even watch the slides being presented without losing the thread of the conversation. Deb, on the other hand, blew off the panel completely, enjoyed the slides and speculated on the guy with the earpiece.

Time to Tour

Suddenly, just few feet away, a small petite lady with a familiar face was greeting old friends around her. The guy in the earpiece moved out of the immediate crush and spoke into his wrist. I was looking right at First Lady Laura Bush and she had a sweet smile for everyone.

I’m not the groupie sort. Even when I go to hear one of my favorite people, I’m never one of the ones who crowd the celebrity after his/her presentation for a handshake or a word. Sometimes I think it would be cool, but I also think it must be stressful to face a crowd like that and I don’t want to be a part of it. I doubt if I would even attend a meet and greet. It feels contrived. In this particular situation, Mrs. Bush was not there in an official capacity, so there was no way I was going to interrupt her enjoyment of the day – but I kind of wanted to.

I think you’d enjoy hearing about the rest of the tour, but I’ve run out of words for today, so come back next week.